Is Google the Next Tech Bully a la Microsoft?

I love c|net.com and have been reading their site for years. Turns out their reporters did an article on G00gle and its struggle to balance privacy and 'reach'.

Apparently, G00gle didn't take kindly to the article, and G00gle has since has decided to blackball C|Net reporters for a year. For what? For providing to the public information to you and me, about the life of G00gle CEO Eric Schmidt. Things like his stock moves, his hobbies, his politics, his wife, etc...

Isn't that exactly the same thing that G00gle does? People worldwide can dig up personal information about you and I using the G00gle search engine. So why does G00gle see what the reporter has done as so wrong?

Blackballing the press because of reporting publicly available facts about their CEO? Doing it because it puts G00gle in a negative light by exposing the companies laying bare our private lives? G00gle isn't explaining itself yet.

Personally, I'm seriously thinking about blackballing G00gle too. The problem is, their tools are very useful. I'm sure that is exactly what G00gle is banking on. By being so useful or necessary to our internet experience, we'll be unwilling to hold G00gle accountable for any shadiness on their part. Sounds a lot like Microsoft doesn't it?

In the meantime, I hope to see c|net ratchet up the intensity of their reporting on all things G00gle in light of G00gle's new policy toward reporting that is critical of their products and practices.